Page 137 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 1

IPS115 Reija H.
critical consumer of data, controlling his/her personal data trail, finding
meaning and taking action based on data. S/he can identify, collect, evaluate,
analyze, interpret, present and protect data.” The outline of types of data
literate citizen by Wolff, A. et al. (2016) is apt for the context of the ISLP project.
Based on the situation where the data is used, they categorize the data literate
citizens to communicators, readers, makers and scientists.
When promoting statistical or data literacy, we need to keep in mind that
in global context we cannot begin an era of media, critical, or statistical literacy
until the whole population of the Earth is able to read and write. This is
particularly important in the ISLP project that wishes to focus its operations to
developing countries. Currently around 14 % of adults (UNESCO [2016]) in the
world’s population (7,55 billion in the year 2017 [UNSD 2017]) are illiterate.
By educating people about statistical literacy, we are building a more
informed community that is ready to think for themselves and critically
interpret the news they see in the media. The purpose of the ISLP is to advance
basic statistical literacy. In broad terms this means the aim is to promote
statistical literacy among the widest possible audience. It also means
advancing people's working life skills and social abilities. From an ISLP
perspective, statistical literacy is a life skill required for today’s information
society. It is needed in ordering, conducting and understanding various
surveys and reports, be they government, private sector or media. At a
minimum, statistical literacy is an everyday skill for understanding news and
media, and for making everyday decisions (see Figure 1.1) (Helenius, R.,
Campos, P., D`amelio, A. & MacFeely, S. [2019]).

Table 2. Dimensions of Statistical Literacy
Basic statistical literacy is a skill for Deeper usage skill is a growing
people requirement for people acting in
information society
Understanding of basic concepts Knowledge of concepts, figures,
and key figures methods and presentations

Ability to use and understand Ability to use and produce
numerical and statistical data in numerical and statistical data in
everyday situations work duties and decision making
Source: Helenius, R. (2016)

4. Awakening youth’s interest in statistics
Alongside teaching statistical literacy, another goal of the ISLP project is
to bring statistics as close to everyday life as possible – and thus demonstrate
their necessity. Everyone gets educated: both the valedictorians of the class
and those who struggle with mathematics or find it difficult to motivate
themselves to study it. The latter is a key target group for promoting statistical

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